Energy Efficiency Improvement of Diesel-Electric Trains Using Solar Energy: A Feasibility Study

Summary: The paper presents a novel approach to heavy-haul railway freight by combining conventional diesel-electric and battery-electric locomotives. A quasi-static model of a battery-electric locomotive is proposed based on a decommissioned diesel-electric locomotive undercarriage equipped with a large battery energy storage system. Simulation results show that fuel cost savings of 22% to 30% and reduced emissions can be achieved by using the proposed tandem operation of the two types of locomotives on mountainous railway routes.

Summary: Hybridization of diesel multiple unit railway vehicles has been proven to effectively reduce fuel consumption and emissions, with a nested coordination framework utilized to optimize fuel consumption globally and achieve significant improvements in energy and environmental performance.